C H I N A A colossal block of granite remains
from Emperor Zhu Di's attempt to create a stela
honoring hisfather. That same boundless ambi
tion launched the Treasure Fleet, which was
grounded after the emperor's death. Now China
is again engaging the world says scholar Roderich
Ptak: "Zheng is a symbol of that opening."
"[We] have recordedthe years and months of the
voyages to the barbariancountries," the admiral
declares, "in order to leave [the memory] forever."
Zheng goes on to list the major landfalls in
the previous six voyages, "altogether more than
thirty countrieslarge and small." He writes of his
efforts "to manifest the transformingpower of vir
tue and to treatdistantpeople with kindness." He
dreams, still, of a new world.
In the Chinese courtly tradition,the greatadmi
ralgraces the pillar'sinscription with a poetic
flourish: "We have traversedmore than one hun
dred thousandli [about40,000 miles] ofimmense
water spaces and have beheld in the ocean huge
waves like mountains risingsky-high, and we have
set eyes on barbarianregionsfar away hidden in
a blue transparencyof light vapors, while our sails
loftily unfurled like clouds day and night."
When the Treasure Fleet returned to China at
the end of its sixth voyage in 1422, its admiral
and many of his crewmen had been abroad
almost constantly for nearly two decades. They
must have felt lost in their own homeland.
The Ming building boom, ignited during their
first voyage, had radically altered China's cities
and towns. Nanjing was no longer its capital;
Zhu Di, the megalomaniac emperor who had
sent the men overseas, now lived in Beijing. He
was in his last months of life, about to be suc
ceeded by his son Zhu Gaozhi. The younger Zhu
died after just nine months in power. But under
the influence of courtiers who opposed the costly
voyages, one of his first edicts was to halt all
overseas expeditions. Zhu Di's grandson Zhu
Zhanji continued the ban.
The policy reversal "changed history, stopped
short what might have been a very different
future for Asia and the world," says Liu Ying
sheng of Nanjing University, a leading Zheng He
scholar. The void left by China's withdrawal
from foreign engagement, he points out, was
filled within the next few decades by Euro
pean imperialism-and Zheng's sophisticated
52 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC * JULY 2005
combination of peacekeeping, trade, and diplo
macy yielded to crude military conquest.
But policy calculations in any epoch are sub
ject to changing conditions. In the late 1420s Ming
China came under pressure, by land from a new
wave of Mongol invasions, by sea from Japanese
pirates, and across its far-flung tributary empire
from local warlords. Zhu Zhanji began to recon
sider his policy on naval expeditions-though
without the sense of unblinking commitment
that had characterized his grandfather. Amid ran
corous debate in the court, a halfhearted decision
was made to reactivate the Treasure Fleet.
It would not affect the long-term balance
sheet of Ming affairs; by the end of the 1430s
the advocates of isolationism in the imperial
court had won a decisive victory. But before
that struggle ended, the great ships would sail
again, on their seventh and
final voyage.
Almost every destination on
this final expedition would be
familiar. It is difficult not to
conclude that the most notable
exception had been chosen by
the admiral himself: Mecca.
In the 15th century Islam
framed the Western Ocean. All
of the Treasure Fleet's routes
had been charted, long before,
by Arab and Persian captains.
Every one of the fleet's desti
nations on the Indian Ocean
and Persian Gulf had a sig
nificant Muslim community.
Islam had also been the
starting point of Zheng He's
immense journey. His sur
name, before Zhu Di changed
it on an imperial whim, was
Ma-the Chinese transcription
of Muhammad.
Zheng's father, Ma Haji, had
made the hajj, the pilgrimage
to Mecca, earning his honorific
title. As an admiral of the Ming
Empire, Zheng himself could
not bow before the symbolic
throne of a foreign king. But he
could send the man who often
seemed his alter ego-his fel
low "Muhammad," Ma Huan.